Altair, half trudging, half being dragged behind me, groaned.

"I have a feeling that I will regret this…" he trailed off, while mumbling a few assorted curses. That was probably because he was 80% sure that he would die.

"Come on, it won't be that bad. You just got to jump in, and then…" He raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue as we approached the river bank. I stopped at the edge of the water, and turned around, with a mischievous smile on my face. A minute had passed when he said:

"Spit it out already. What is the key to swimming? Is there some special technique required? Something?"

"Yes. The key to swimming is…" I waited to add some dramatic suspense, which further annoyed Altair.

"Just keep swimming… just keep swimming…" I continued repeating the phrase, imitating a fish by pressing my cheeks together with my hands facing outwards and splayed. Altair face palmed.

"How informative. Can we just start now?" he asked. He was eager to get done with it, dry off, go to the campsite, pack, go to Masyaf, dump this crazy chick there, leave, and pretend that this had never happened.

"Yup. First thing, you must learn to float. Go deep enough in for the water to be at waist height." I shooed him towards the water, which he hesitantly entered.

"What is next?" I waded in, stopping beside him.

"Lay down. I'll place my arms beneath you to support your weight." Now silent, he slowly bent his knees, allowing his back to rest upon the surface on the water. I whistled the Jeopardy tune while I waited for him to get comfortable. After what seemed like forever, he started moving his legs, so I placed my hands under his shoulders and thighs. He floated there, mesmerized by the feeling of being so… weightless.

"Good! Look, you're floating!" I congratulated him with a little pat on this shoulder.

"This is… strangely comfortable, I have to admit." I looked at his little, content smile, which I found to be absolutely adorable.

"Okay, I'm going to move my hands closer to the center of your lower back, so I won't be supporting you as much." He didn't reply. As I slowly trailed my hands along, he trembled, so I stopped. After a few seconds, I started moving them again, but once again stopped because he kept trembling. With a sigh, I continued, when he started having a freaking SEISURE or something.

"OH MY GOD, STAHP. What are heck are you doing?" I looked down at him, noticing his strange expression. He was biting his lip, and he had this forced, serious look on his face. "Well, okay then…"

As soon as I started back up again, he completely lost control. He squirmed and giggled. I mean, he freaking giggled. Or maybe it was more of a light chuckle… but that wasn't the point. He had the goofiest grin on his face, and I couldn't help but point it out.

"Apparently someone's enjoying himself." I poked his side with my index finger. His smile was contagious.

"Stop it! I-I clearly am not!" he stuttered.

"Clearly that's the case." I took my left hand completely off of his lower back and tickled him on his stomach, down his sides and even his underarms.

"I going to kill you, I swear to Allah!" He continued to thrash about, and he suddenly placed his feet down, bent over, and lunged. He prodded his fingers everywhere, and of course, I was probably the most ticklish person in the world. I saw how it was: tickled, or be tickled. Both of us laughing, and squirming we continued our battle for a good fourteen minutes. Eventually, I pushed him over, back first in to the water, and to get back at me, he kicked to splash me, not realizing that he had just moved a few feet or so. I clapped, much to his confusion.

"You just swam, you know."

"No, I… wait, did you move backwards? What trickery is this?" He started to get up, but I splashed on over and pushed him down again.

"Just float, then kick and paddle to propel yourself through the water." I showed him how to use his arms and the different forms. Much to my satisfaction, he was a quick learner and soon was able to swim up and down the river. I sprawled myself on top of a large boulder next to the water and closed my eyes.

A while later, I felt a gentle poke on my good shoulder. Propping myself up on my elbow, I looked up at Altair, who was using a cloth to soak up the little glistening beads of water upon his skin.

"Yes?" I brushed a few strands of hair away from my eyes. He paused with his drying to inspect my wound. He lightly stroked the edge of the bandage and slipped the tip of his finger underneath. As he started to carefully take off and unwrap the bandage, he hummed a little tune. One that I surprisingly recognized…

Oh no…

I remembered the other day that I had the annoying "Call Me Maybe" song stuck in my head. So of course, I would hum it, etc. But now Altair was too. Agh…

As he got further into the chorus, I remembered the lyrics to the part he was humming. "And all the other boys try to chase me, so here's my number, so call me maybe". I couldn't help but laugh.

"So, did Malik ever call you back?"